Barbera AMA SportBike: Race 1 Results

Cameron Beaubier won his first AMA Pro GoPro Daytona SportBike pole position and race on the same day at Barber Motorsports Park on Saturday. The 19-year-old Californian won a nail-biter over Dane Westby (M4 Suzuki) and his Y.E.S./Graves/Yamaha teammate Tommy Hayden, one that ended with only 0.674 between the three riders after 21 laps.

The action in GoPro Daytona SportBike has been fierce and laptimes have been falling this weekend in Birmingham. Westby set a new Daytona SportBike lap record at the track in provisional qualifying yesterday, with Hayden close behind, before both Jason DiSalvo (Latus Motors Racing Triumph) and eventual polesitter Beaubier were able to lower the mark even more in final qualifying this morning.

For the Saturday afternoon final, competitors were met with blazing conditions. Beaubier ran in the lead pack the entire race and battled with Westby, Hayden and DiSalvo for the lead at various points in the contest. With just a couple of laps to go, Beaubier took over the point from Hayden, who then fell victim to Westby. Westby tried to make a go at Beaubier in turn four on the last lap, but couldn’t make the pass work.

Westby made a strong bid for the victory but felt he made a slight mistake on the last lap that cost him a better shot at the win. Dane wasn’t quite close enough to try a move in the final series of turns.

Cameron Beaubier says: “I felt really comfortable leading today. I tried to stay out in front as long as I could. I felt like I had a little more in the first few sectors of the track than I did at the end, so I just pushed really hard. I’m at a loss for words. I was so happy to get pole position and a win. It felt really good,” he said.

DiSalvo finished fourth, ahead of points leader Martin Cardenas (GEICO Suzuki) who wasn’t quite as strong as normal on Saturday. Cardenas’ points lead only shrunk by two to second-place man DiSalvo.

Bobby Fong (Meen Motorsports) ran with the lead group in the first half of the race, but rebounded to beat out Benny Solis (Kneedraggers.com Yamaha) for sixth. Jake Zemke (Ducshop Ducati) ran clear of the competition for eighth in what was a lonely race for the veteran.